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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25876024">Landman</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbluezero/pseuds/redbluezero'>redbluezero</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Red's SAO Prideweek 2020 Fics [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sword Art Online (Anime &amp; Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>College, Denial of Feelings, Falling In Love, Love Confessions, Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:47:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25876024</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbluezero/pseuds/redbluezero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Takeru Higa’s sophomore year of undergrad was fleeting, but he cherished it all the same. He fell in love, denied it, then lost it, all in a year.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Red's SAO Prideweek 2020 Fics [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864996</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>SAO Pride Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Landman</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for day five - love confessions/crush.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Takeru started his second year at the Toto Institute of Technology, he anticipated that it would be drab compared to other years. That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t learning anything from Professor Shigemura; he felt challenged in his classes for once and looked forward to each and every day with a smile. He’d simply grown accustomed to the new environment, so he no longer felt that freshman giddiness, but was still too inexperienced to work on any major projects. Those were the objective facts.</p><p>His second year turned out to revolve around subjectivity.</p><p>“Higa-san, there is space in your dorm, correct? We’d like to room an exchange student with you,” the administrator had asked him on his second day back. He wanted to point out that it was a very last minute request, which was irresponsible, but Takeru was too meek to say anything and instead complied with the request. At the end of the day, he went back to his dorm and aggressively cleared up the unoccupied half that he’d been using to keep miscellaneous trinkets he’d built. To say that he was irritated would have been an understatement.</p><p>All negative feelings melted away when he met his new roommate the next morning.</p><p>“Hello, I’m Chae Sung-ho. It’s nice to meet you,” the exchange student introduced himself politely. He was tall, well-built, and had trimmed, dark brown hair. He had a wide, relaxed smile and a prominent bottom lip. For Takeru, that smile was love at first sight.</p><p>“N-Nice to meet ya. I’m Higa Takeru,” he sputtered, trying to keep his cool. He quickly shook the other man’s hand. It was nice and firm.</p><p>“This place is really cool. I apologize for barging in, but it was definitely worth it,” Sung-ho said once the handshake was done with, “Do you mind being my tour guide?” He kept smiling, but his eyes started to gleam excitedly as well. Takeru already had trouble with saying no to others, but he especially couldn’t refuse those puppy dog eyes.</p><p>“S-Sure…” he agreed with a small nod. Sung-ho triumphantly pumped his fist in the air, mumbling a victory cry, then set his luggage down on the cleared side of the room. He spent a few minutes lining up all of things before turning on his heel to face Takeru again.</p><p>“Show me around, roomie!”</p><p>The next few months flitted by like hummingbird wings. They were filled with fun memories of nights spent snuggled next to Sung-ho, watching crappy foreign movies, and early mornings spent sitting across from Sung-ho in the booths of fast food restaurants, scarfing down the strangest specials. As for school memories, Sung-ho attended far more basic courses, so Takeru didn’t see him much during the day. He felt that it was both a blessing and curse.</p><p>The Shigemura Laboratory was the one place in the institute where Takeru could revert to the clear-headed person he was before his roommate had moved in. Hearing the buzz of the machinery he’d crafted with fine fingertips, scrutinizing the code he’d written using every ounce of his wit; those were the things that calmed him down. He expressed himself better with circuits and connectors.</p><p>Except when it came to romance, of course. One cannot express emotion with zeroes and ones, and being in the lab only steeped Takeru further into denial. The group of people in the lab with him weren’t any help, either. Specifically Akihiko and Rinko, who were clearly dating. Takeru had once seen them share a kiss in the hallway leading to the restrooms, which confirmed his suspicions about the strange tension that he felt whenever he was with the two of them. Upon seeing their lips touch, Takeru felt his chest tighten to the point where it became hard to breathe.</p><p><em> I like Koujiro-senpai and am jealous of Kayaba-senpai ‘cause he’s dating her. I’m jealous of their relationship, not the fact that they are freely in one. That’s what this feeling is. And as long as I like Koujiro-senpai, there’s no way I like Sung-ho, </em>he thought to himself as he walked back to his computer. He quickly finished up his work, packed his things, and walked the long way to the dormitory. By the time he got to his room, his mood had turned sour.</p><p>“You look super grumpy, Takeru,” Sung-ho pointed out as he stuck his hand down a bag of potato chips. He threw a couple into his mouth, then leaned back against his bed. He was sitting on the floor, surrounded by open textbooks.</p><p>“Nah, I’m fine,” Takeru muttered as he flopped onto his own bed, across from his roommate’s. He rolled over onto his side and pressed his right cheek onto the mattress. He pushed up his glasses, to make sure he could see across the room clearly, and asked,</p><p>“Can we have a movie night, though?”</p><p>Sung-ho flashed him a compassionate smile. Takeru’s chest tightened even harder than when he’d seen Rinko kiss a man that wasn’t himself.</p><p>“Of course, let me get my laptop and we can watch a corny American movie,” Sung-ho replied. He put the bag of chips down and hoisted himself up, then walked over to Takeru’s desk and unplugged his sleek laptop. Sung-ho then sat down on the bed, by the other man’s feet, and opened up the computer. It was logged in already, so all he had to do was enter the URL of the website they always used.</p><p>“This one looks funny, it’s about a guy who needs a best man for his wedding but has no other guy friends!” Sung-ho chuckled, pointing at the screen. The movie he spoke of was called <em> I Love You, Man </em>and it was in the “new seeders” row of the website’s main page. Takeru thought the poster looked stupid since it was just a picture of Jason Segel and Paul Rudd, the leads, standing next to each other. He wasn’t in the mood for romance, either. But Sung-ho’s laugh had the power to make Takeru do anything.</p><p>“Sounds good,” he complied.</p><p>The movie was even dumber than its poster. The conflicts that the protagonist got into gave Takeru second-hand embarrassment. He got to hear more of Sung-Ho’s laugh, though, which made the crude jokes worth it. He basked in that wonderful noise until, an hour and forty-five minutes later, it fizzled out.</p><p>“I’m going to go back to Korea soon. I have to do my mandatory service, so I’m going to be putting a pause on my education,” Sung-ho admitted solemnly while the credits rolled on the small screen. His gaze was fixed on the opposite wall, as if he was lost in thought. Takeru’s gaze was fixed on his roommate’s beautiful, pensive face. He almost didn’t process his words.</p><p>“Oh… okay,” was all he could say. The tight feeling in his chest had turned into full-on aching, which hindered his ability to think. Takeru’s brain had run into an error message for the very first time in his life, and all because of a man that’d barged into it.</p><p>The day of Sung-ho’s departure, Takeru locked himself in their dorm. The left side of the room had been cleared out and returned to its original state. A year ago, he would’ve been overjoyed to have the room to himself again. He lay on the other man’s made bed, pressing his nose into the fitted sheets, and took in his scent. He hated how lonely he felt.</p><p>Deep down, he knew that he had a big, fat crush on Sung-ho. He knew that he was jealous of Akihiko because of his skills, not because he was seeing Rinko. Takeru definitely wasn’t attracted to her, at least. He simply deleted those truths from his thoughts.</p><p>He also knew that, when it came to operating systems and software, nothing ever truly disappeared upon deletion. Information was only layered over by enough white zeroes to make gaining access tedious. That meant that his real sentiments were only buried, too.</p><p>Takeru was a bright man. Recovering old content from broken computers was child’s play to him. If he could do that, surely he could confess.</p><p>He jolted upright and tumbled off of Sung-ho’s bed. He slipped into some sneakers, threw on a jacket, and left the dormitory. He’d never run so fast in his entire life.</p><p>Following the map on his phone was easy enough. Takeru hopped onto the train designated by the application and anxiously rode it to the harbor. He gripped the handlebar tightly the whole time, only ever letting go when his stop came.</p><p>He pushed through the crowd and made it above ground, then ran through unfamiliar streets as his phone told him to. Takeru knew the exact time that Sung-ho’s boat was set to leave, so he raced against the clock. The docks came into view, so he quickly went up a couple of steps and into the ferry waiting area.</p><p>Takeru ran to the edge of the landing and rammed his hands into the railing. He pressed hard enough that part of his body went far over the ledge, but he wasn’t afraid of falling. That’s right, he wasn’t afraid of anything anymore. He was going to say it. With red cheeks and a strained voice, he screamed,</p><p>“The comedy movie starring Jason Segel and Paul Rudd!”</p><p>From down on the docks, Sung-ho looked at his friend. For a second, he didn’t understand. His were wide and his brow was furrowed. Something must’ve clicked, though, because he broke into his classic smile. He then took in a deep breath and shouted back,</p><p>“The second song on Ziggy Marley’s <em> Family Time </em>album!”</p><p>It was Takeru’s turn to be confused. He raised an eyebrow, then quickly got out his phone. He typed in his friend’s response as fast as his shaking fingers would move. Service was slow by the water, but the page loaded just in time. Takeru expanded the list of songs in the album and scrolled down to the second track on the list. </p><p>
  <em> I Love You Too </em>
</p><p>Takeru felt his heart skip a beat, to which he couldn’t help but smile like a giddy young child. His feelings for the other man had been returned, silently implying that good things were to come upon their reunion. With that promise in mind, Sung-ho waved goodbye and boarded the ferry.</p><p>Takeru waved back, watching as the boat sailed off into the horizon. The sun set along with it, making it a picturesque goodbye. He would've relished in the sky's beauty for much longer had he known that it was goodbye forever.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I ended up talking about tech stuff way more than I’d originally intended but, hey, it’s my fic.<br/>I know their discreet (which makes sense, given the time) way of saying “I love you, man” and “I love you, too” is incredibly stupid but I can assure you that it’s happened before. To me.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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